Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The news that Mills & Boon is to convert 200 of its titles to the e-book format – adding 70 a month thereafter – is further demonstration, if any were needed, that digitisation is on its way. Yes, it still represents only a tiny slice of the market and arguably sees far more column inches than its revenue warrants, but few are in any doubt that the sector is growing.

One issue many older people have with e-readers and digitisation is simple: books do furnish a room, e-readers do not. A display of books stimulates conversation. “Oh, I’ve read that too – I loved it.” “I’ve just bought this for a friend of mine – is it good?” “God, I remember that cover – just looking at it reminds me of college.”

Here’s another simple point. A wall of books acts as a visual memory. Sometimes, when you’re trying to remember the title of something, it just helps to scan your eye quickly along the spines. Yes, you could scroll through titles on your e-reader but, ironically, that seems more clunky, clumsier than just scanning your shelf. If the human eye was called the iEye, then we might all realise what a cool, unbelievably sophisticated piece of it kit it is.

'If the human eye was called the iEye, then we might all realise what a cool,unbelievably sophisticated piece of kit it is.'

Yet there is a sickening snobbery to all this. It sort of runs: “Look at me. I’ve got all these books. Hardbacks too. I’m a collector, see? I’m intellectual. The more books you have, the bigger your brain.” That’s putting it in a very blunt way, but I think there’s an element of truth to it.

But I think that attitude is the province of older people. I don’t think twentysomethings think like that. I don’t think they need books around them to validate themselves in the way their parents’ generation do. We’ll notice friends’ book collections and enjoy browsing their shelves; I think younger people browse friends’ Facebook sites, or blogs, or websites. If you like, they are looking at their ‘electronic’ shelves, and I think it could be argued that’s how young people validate themselves: I am such and such because I have these friends on my site and these links are in my Favourites. In a sense, they are still as materialistic as we are: it’s just that when it comes to media – books, music, news – theirs is an invisible materialism, one that is more environmentally friendly. We’re still wedded to objects; they’re comfortable with bytes.

It’s the same with music. We used to look at peoples’ album collections, often sitting on the floor and flicking through piles leant against the wall. Now, people don’t have collections like this. It’s all virtual – just a great long list on a PC or iPod. It sounds paradoxical, but the world is becoming less physical.

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Beyond Hall 8 is a platform for discussion about book publishing from an international perspective and for an international audience. On this blog, you will find comprehensive coverage of groundbreaking news from English-speaking book markets, critical analysis of developing trends, and the witty opinions of our erudite bloggers. Focusing on stories that resonate beyond national and regional borders, Beyond Hall 8 seeks to build wider avenues of communication, community, and occasional ranting. Our regular and guest contributors from around the world are industry experts with a passion for books and the business of publishing. We welcome your feedback and opinions.

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Ed Nawotka is a widely published book critic and authority on the publishing industry. A long time editor and writer for Publishers Weekly, he is a columnist at Bloomberg News and contributes to numerous national magazines and newspapers. You can find an archive of his work at http://www.edwardn.com/.

Roger Tagholm is the former Deputy Editor of UK trade weekly Publishing News. He has been writing about the industry for 20 years and is the author of two books, Walking Literary London (New Holland) and Poems NOT on the Underground (Windrush Press). He is now a freelance writer, journalist and photographer, contributing to a wide variety of publications and websites, including the UK Bookseller magazine.

Andrew Wilkins is director of Australian independent publishing house Wilkins Farago. Until May 2008 he was publisher of Australia's book industry magazine, Bookseller+Publisher, and has been a regular visitor to the Frankfurt Book Fair, and other book fairs, over the past decade. During his 20 years in the book trade, he has been a bookseller, publisher, editor, sales and marketing manager, typesetter, rights manager, author and publicist. In February 2008, he chaired the inaugural Professional Publishing in Asia conference in New Delhi, India. He travels regularly throughout the Asia-Pacific region.